A great deal of research in rhetoric, communication and composition in recent decades has attempted to bridge classrooms in higher education with deeper considerations of civic purpose, social activism and training for capable citizenship. However, these pushes toward community literacy and classroom advocacy have yet to fully consider the impact social web … Continue reading Stand Up!- Theorizing the Activist UnEssay, Pt. I
Should first-year writing students choose their own essay topics? I’d like to take some time this morning to venture an interesting take on this question that has been turning around in my head for a few months now. Long a topic of boisterous debate within composition and rhetoric, the role of student … Continue reading Should Students Choose Their Own Writing Topics?: A Mindful Approach
This is lifted from a creative piece I wrote a while back. It fits the mood of this Fourth of July well, when my mind drifts into fantasies of deserts, golden hayfields and cacti caked in the red glow of sunset--essentially anything recent political developments haven't infringed as of yet (as hard as Scott Pruitt … Continue reading A Prose Poem for the Fourth of July…
And just like that, the Spring semester has flown by and will soon give way to the joys of summer. Before we end, however, I'd like to take some time to outline the final capstone project I'm assigning to my first-year writing students to end our time together and draw everything to a cohesive close: … Continue reading Apocalyptic Turn/Sparking Change
My sister Andrea has spent the morning researching our family's roots in Germany, Switzerland and France, in turn educating me on the interesting findings she's uncovered. As it turns out, our family occupies a not-so-small bit of space in the world. Here's a bit of what she's shared: Firstly, a direct ancestor of ours opened … Continue reading The Space We Occupy
I've been reading a lot recently on literacy narratives, chronicles of time and transformation in which writers reflect on their past experiences reading, writing and communicating in conversation with others. I'm intrigued with what I might find myself writing were I to begin a literacy narrative project, especially considering my literacy, as it stands, is only just … Continue reading A Blast From the Past
Writing and Mindfulness I first encountered meditation during the spring semester of my senior year of college. A group of twenty or so of us sat in a two-tiered circle, red and blue light shimmering inside from the interfaith center’s stained glass windows, as a philosophy professor/smiling mystic led us in breathing exercises. These exercises … Continue reading Writing and Mindfulness
I do not wish to utter even a single cliché until the day on which I die. I wish that utterance to be "I did well," or "I was very happy," or perhaps even a cliché utilizing the phrases "well-spent" or "well-lived" or "I gave all." I think, right now, those are clichés I can live with, … Continue reading Poem Written On Simon & Shuster’s “Handbook For Writers.”
This year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel-Writing Month) is in full swing, and I'm working hard toward the 50,000-word goal for the 30 days of writing. I've got a major advantage, as I've been working on a project for a few months now, off-and-on, and had about 20,000 words prior to the month's beginning. In Syracuse, we … Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2016
Lately I’ve been re-reading an old favorite I first read midway through college, right when I was just beginning to locate myself as a writer: Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The book raises a number of issues I won’t even begin to detail in this post, but I wanted to pay … Continue reading Writing, Composition and Deliberate Living
Jacob Richter 